Automatically aligned railway car vestibule

ABSTRACT

A gangway for railway carriages having an automatic central coupling including two rigid gangway tunnel halves sealed to the carriage ends and elastically joined to the tunnel halves and catch horns are provided for exact alignment and locking bolts for connecting.

United States Patent 1 Vollenweider et al.

AUTOMATICALLY ALIGNED RAILWAY CAR VESTIBULE lnventors: Paul Vollenweider; Franz Wagner,

both of Neuhausen, Switzerland Assignee: Schweizerische Industrie- Gesellschaft, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Germany Filed: April 7, 1971 Appl. No.: 131,909

Foreign Application Priority Data June 4, i970 Switzerland 8354/70 US. Cl. ..105/2l, 105/23, 105/458 Int. Cl. ..B60d 5/00, B6lf 17/14, B6lf 17/20 Field of Search ..lO5/20, 21, 23, 458

[ 1 Jan. 23, 1973 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 515,60l 2/1894 Manning ..l()5/2l X 389,437 9/1888 Bissell et al.... .l05/2l 435,676 9/1890 Bissell ..l05/23 4l7,567 l2/l889 KrehbieL... ....l()5/2l X 2,355,260 8/l944 Pihl et al. ..l0S/2l Primary Examiner--Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-Howard Beltran Attorney-Browdy and Neimark [57] ABSTRACT A gangway for railway carriages having an automatic central coupling including two rigid gangway tunnel halves sealed to the carriage ends and elastically joined to the tunnel halves and catch horns are provided for exact alignment and locking bolts for connecting.

4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures AUTOMATICALLY ALIGNED RAILWAY CAR VESTIBULE The present invention concerns a gangway for railway carriages having an automatic central coupling and having at each end one half ofa gangway tunnel.

Railway carriage gangways often consist of gangway foot-bridges which are to some extent sealed towards the outside by folding bellows or rubber liners. For higher requirements as to comfort and safety, sound and thermal insulation, it is common to use inherently rigid tunnels movably joined to the carriage body. The space between the tunnels and the carriage body is then completely sealed towards outside by rubber-elastic bellows. For trains which are only uncoupled for maintenance purposes, the tunnels can be made of a piece. For trains which must be frequently coupled and un coupled, the tunnels are made in two sections, each carriage end having one section.

For carriages having an automatic central coupling, the object of the present invention is to permit the gangway tunnel halves to be coupled and uncoupled in the same manner as the automatic coupling, i.e., safely and smoothly.

The gangway claimed hereunder is characterized in that the inherently rigid gangway tunnel halves are movably joined to the particular carriage end and with sealing effect with the carriage end wall, and that the central coupling sections are elastically joined to the gangway tunnel halves for the purpose of controlling the angular position of the tunnel halves to be coupled, and that catch horns are provided for exact alignment of the gangway tunnel halves, and several locking bolts are provided for connecting.

In this arrangement, the upper portions of the gangway tunnel halves are preferably pressed against each other by spring devices to ensure reliable closing of those portions also. For uncoupling, the locking bolts may be connected to the unlocking lever by pulling means.

An embodiment of the present invention is now to be described by way of example .with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which FIG. 1 shows a side view of two carriage ends with a FIG. 2 shows a section along line 11-11 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows an end-view ofa carriage;

FIG. 4 shows a locking bolt;

FIG. 5 shows a catch horn of a gangway with funnel.

The gangway shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 presents two tunnel halves 1. These two gangway tunnel halves l are pivoted at top and bottom by a link 3 each at a fixed point 5 of the carriage body and are sealed by a surrounding bellows 7 with respect to a door opening 9. Moreover, each of the two gangway tunnel halves 1 rests by rubber-elastic means 11 in the form of pins on a corresponding half 13 of the central coupling. The two gangway tunnel halves 1 are further provided at their outer end with a surrounding seal 17 lining them and having two catch horns 19 and four locking bolts 21. The carriage end is further provided with gangway unlocking levers 23, coupling unlocking levers (not shown) and pulling means 27.

When two carriages are moved together for coupling, the catch device of the central coupling ad- 'usts the couplin halves 13 to each other. The couplin alves 13 move e associated gangway tunnel halves which are action-connected to them, in the same direction. When the carriages are moved still closer together, the catch horns 19, as shown in FIG. 5, exactly align the gangway tunnel halves 1 with each other, and subsequently the surrounding liners 17 are pressed against each other. In the process, the locking bolts 21, as shown by way of example in FIG. 4, engage automatically. The final small distance of the carriages moving together is taken up by the elastic fastening of the gangway tunnel halves 1. It causes the catch hooks of the central coupling to engage. As a result, the carriages are coupled up with respect to both the central coupling and the gangway tunnel.

When the two carriages are to be separated again, the locking bolts 21 of the gangway must be unlocked by the gangway unlocking levers 23 fitted on both sides at the carriage end, and the coupling unlocking lever 25 must open the central coupling. In the embodiment shown, the gangway unlocking levers 23 are actionconnected to the locking bolts 21 by the pulling means 27. To ensure dependable and complete closing of the gangway tunnel halves l, the upper portions of the gangway tunnel halves are preferably pressed against each other by springs.

We claim:

1. In a railway carriage having an automatic central coupling and having a rigid gangway tunnel half at each end, the improvement comprising:

sealing means for movably joining and resiliently sealing said rigid tunnel halves to the corresponding carriage end walls;

longitudinal alignment means connected to said tunnel halves for automatically aligning said tunnel halves longitudinally, said alignment means comprising a connection means for elastically joining said tunnel halves with said respective central coupling sections for movement therewith; and catch horn means attached to said tunnel halves for exact alignment thereof by interengagement and locking bolt means attached to said tunnel halves for latching thereof.

2. A railway carriage in accordance with claim 1 wherein said locking bolt means include means for automatic engagement and further including means for joint disengagement by remote operation.

3. A railway carriage in accordance with claim 1 further including resilient means connected thereto for pressing the upper portion of said gangway tunnel halves against each other.

4. A railway carriage in accordance with claim 2 wherein said means for joint disengagement comprises:

an unlocking lever connected to the carriage at a position remote from said locking bolt means; and pulling means connected to said unlocking lever for jointly disengaging said locking bolt means. 

1. In a railway carriage having an automatic central coupling and having a rigid gangway tunnel half at each end, the improvement comprising: sealing means for movably joining and resiliently sealing said rigid tunnel halves to the corresponding carriage end walls; longitudinal alignment means connected to said tunnel halves for automatically aligning said tunnel halves longitudinally, said alignment means comprising a connection means for elastically joining said tunnel halves with said respective central coupling sections for movement therewith; and catch horn means attached to said tunnel halves for exact alignment thereof by interengagement and locking bolt means attached to said tunnel halves for latching thereof.
 2. A railway carriage in accordance with claim 1 wherein said locking bolt means include means for automatic engagement and further including means for joint disengagement by remote operation.
 3. A railway carriage in accordance with claim 1 further including resilient means connected thereto for pressing the upper portion of said gangway tunnel halves against each other.
 4. A railway carriage in accordance with claim 2 wherein said means for joint disengagement comprises: an unlocking lever connected to the carriage at a position remote from said locking bolt means; and pulling means connected to said unlocking lever for jointly disengaging said locking bolt means. 